If you followed the Individual Fencing events in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, you would agree that these Games so far were the most unpredictable and mind-blowing.
I often listened to the fans roar coming from the TV, and I was confused about whether I was watching fencing or a soccer match as the 8,000 crowd that filled the gorgeous Grand Palais in Paris was as loud, enthusiastic, and electrifying as in any mainstream sport. This is possible only in France, and for the first time in many decades watching fencing, I really thought this crowd did justice to such a gorgeous spectacle as fencing at the Olympics. I felt that they not only cheered the athletes, but the crowd was really able to follow the bouts, which is rare for fencing. On the other hand, this is France, the best country in the world for large-scale fencing tournaments. This was especially true in contrast to the Tokyo Olympics, which had empty bleachers.
I’m not going to talk about fencing itself in this post—it was fantastic, with many unexpected results, huge upsets, and historic wins. Fencing-wise, these Games provided some of the best ever, and I don’t exaggerate. Some results I predicted, and some were totally unexpected, a very welcome change in the fencing dynamics.
This Olympic Games’ individual events section showed a huge shift in fencing, and many records were set for many countries and disciplines.
Here are the Individual Paris 2024 medalists:
Women’s Epee:
Gold – Vivian Kong (Hong Kong) – 30
Silven – Auriane Mallo-Breton (France) – 30
Bronze – Eszter Muhari (Hungary) – 21
Men’s Epee:
Gold – Koki Kano (Japan) – 26
Silver – Yanick Borel (France) – 35
Bronze – Mohamed Elsayed (Egypt) – 21
Women’s Foil:
Gold – Lee Kiefer (USA) – 30
Silver – Lauren Scruggs (USA) – 21
Bronze – Eleanor Harvey (Canada) – 29
Men’s Foil:
Gold – Ka Long Cheung (Hong Kong) – 27
Silver – Fillipo Macchi (Italy) – 22
Bronze – Nick Itkin (USA) – 24
Women’s Sabre:
Gold – Manon Apithy-Brunet (France) – 28
Silver – Sara Balzer (France) – 29
Bronze – Olga Kharlan (Ukraine) – 33
Men’s Sabre:
Gold – Sanguk Oh (Korea) – 27
Silver – Fares Ferjani (Tunisia) – 27
Bronze – Luigi Samele (Italy) – 37
The numbers after the names are the athlete’s age.
Medal Count (by country):
Hong Kong – 2 Gold
France – 1 Gold, 3 Silver
USA – 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
Korea and Japan – 1 Gold
Italy – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
Tunisia – 1 Silver
Canada, Egypt, Hungary, Ukraine – 1 Bronze
Medal Count (by Zone):
Asia – 4 Gold
Europe – 1 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze
Americas – 1 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze
Africa – 1 Silver, 1 Bronze
Take a moment to let this sink in—Asian countries won four (!) Gold medals, with Hong Kong winning two Gold medals and Korea and Japan each with one medal. This never happened before—while Asian countries won Gold medals before, there was never such an unprecedented tally of four Olympic Champions, two of whom are from Hong Kong.
Here are some fun fencing trivia facts:
- This Olympics was completely dominated by non-European fencers in 5 out of 6 disciplines. Only in Women’s Sabre was the podium European, with the all-French final. On the other hand, Women’s Foil had a North American podium, with the all-USA final.
- Cheung is the only person from an Asian country to win two Individual Gold medals in fencing at the Olympics.
- Vivian Kong is the third Asian woman to win Gold, and in the last two Olympic Games, the Gold in Women’s Epee went to Asian countries ( Yiwen Sun from China won Women’s Epee in Tokyo)
- The African continent has yet to win a Gold medal in fencing, but it has started to make strides in the international arena. Two Olympic medals, Silver in Men’s Sabre and Bronze in Men’s Epee, are clear signs in this direction. It always starts with small steps.
But then there are so many other mind-blowing facts, which I provide here for the fans of fencing trivia. By all means, this is not the most extensive list of the records as I might miss some, but these facts stood out for me, so enjoy:
- Lee Kiefer became the second American woman (the first one was sabreist Mariel Zagunis) to win Olympic gold back-to-back and the fourth in the world (third in foil) to do this.
- Ka Long Cheung became the first Asian fencer to win two Olympic Gold medals
- Korea leads Asian countries in the number of Individual Gold medals ever won by its fencers, with 4 medals total, followed by Hong Kong and China with 3 Gold medals – each won 3 times. Japan has one. No other Asian country won any Gold medal. Korea also has gold in each weapon for men: Foil, Epee, Sabre, and Sabre for Women.
- These Olympic Games are the third in history when two reigning champions successfully defended their title. The first were two legendary women, Italian foilist Valentina Vezzali and Hungarian epeeist Timea Nagy. In 2004, they defended their title from Sydney 2000. The second time was in Beijing in 2008 when Valentina Vezzali again defended her title (third time in a row!), and Mariel Zagunis defended her first title, which she earned in Athens in 2004. But in Paris, it was the first time a man and woman were defending their titles. Talk about something unprecedented!
- Both Kiefer and Cheung joined a small circle of Olympic Champions who succeeded in defending their title.
- Six times women succeeded in defending their title across all weapons: four times in foil (1936 and 1948 Ilona Elek from Hungary, 2000-2004 and 2004-2008 Valentina Vezalli from Italy, 2020-2024 Lee Keifer from the USA), one time in epee (2000-2004 Timea Nagy from Hungary) and one time in sabre (2004-2008 Mariel Zagunis from the USA).
- In men, this happened 10 times across all weapons: 3 times in foil — Nedo Nadi from Italy – 1912-1920, Christian d’Oriola from France 1952-1956, Ka Long Cheung from Hong Kong 2020-2024, in epee only once – 1900-1904 Ramon Frost from Cuba, in sabre six times – Jeno Fuchs from Hungary in 1908-1912, Rudolf Karpati – 1956-1960, Victor Krovopuskov from the Soviet Union in 1976-1980, Jean-Francois Lamour in 1984-1988 (by the way, he was one of the last torchbearers in the Opening Ceremony), and Aron Zhilagyi twice, in 2012-2016, 2016-2020
- There are a lot of first times in these Games:
- Japan won its first Individual Gold medal in fencing (second overall). Both are in the same discipline, Men’s Epee, in two consecutive Olympiads.
- Korea won its second Individual Gold medal in sabre after almost a quarter of a century.
- Egypt won its first Olympic medal in epee, second overall after 2012 Silver medal in Men’s Foil.
- Tunisia won its first silver medal in men’s sabre, and second overall after a bronze medal in women’s foil in 2016.
- Yanick Borel, the 2016 Olympic Champion in teams, finally earned his first Individual Olympic medal, with a silver medal in men’s epee. Long waited and well deserved.
- Eleanor Harvey won Canada’s first fencing medal.
- Sabre, in both men and women, had only experienced veteran fencers medalling. Every other discipline had at least one young medalist (two 21-year-olds, one 22-year-old, and one 24-year-old).
- The oldest medalist was 37-year-old Italian Luigi Samele in the men’s sabre. The youngest was Mohamed Elsayed, 21, who also brought Egypt its first medal in the men’s epee discipline.
- Kharlan-Samele is the only couple to have medals in these games, with bronze medals in the women’s and men’s sabre, respectively.
- The most touching and sweet celebration of the victory was in Women’s Sabre, and it serves as an illustration of this post.
The bottom line is that individual events gave fencing a fantastic opportunity to showcase itself, and as I wrote before, there is no better place to do that than in France. We can only imagine what joy the team events will bring.
The *oldest* medalist was 37-year-old Italian Luigi Samele in the men’s *sabre*.
Even more impressive in the fastest, most dynamic weapon.